Raids shatter perception of Puerto Rico as a sanctuary for immigrants
[March 20, 2025]
By DÁNICA COTO
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Pastor Nilka Marrero will slam her hand on
the table, raise her voice and, if needed, shake her parishioners while
playing the role of a federal agent.
Many of her parishioners are undocumented immigrants, and she believes
that role-playing with them can help prepare them for the threat of
arrest as authorities step up immigration raids to a scale never before
seen in Puerto Rico.
“They appear and snatch people,” Marrero said.
For decades, undocumented immigrants have lived in the U.S. territory
without fear of arrest. They're allowed to open bank accounts and obtain
a special driver’s license. Many have felt safe enough to open their own
businesses.
Then, on Jan. 26, large-scale arrests began.
U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided a well-known
Dominican community in a nod to a new policy of U.S. President Donald
Trump, who has pledged to deport millions of people who have entered the
United States illegally.
The arrests have angered Puerto Rican officials and civil leaders who
have created programs to help the island’s undocumented immigrants, many
of whom are from the Dominican Republic.
Arrests and questions
An estimated 55,000 Dominicans live in Puerto Rico, although some
experts believe the number could be even higher. It’s unclear how many
are undocumented, although some 20,000 have the special driver’s
license.
More than 200 people have been arrested since Jan. 26, nearly all men.
Of those arrested, 149 are Dominican, according to data ICE provided The
Associated Press.
Sandra Colón, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
in Puerto Rico, said the agency is focusing on those with a criminal
record or who have received a final court ruling that they must leave
the country. But she said she did not immediately have available how
many of those arrested have criminal records.
Annette Martínez, Puerto Rico’s ACLU director, said it’s unknown where
those arrested have been taken or if they have been deported. “We’re
concerned about the different methods ICE is using for detainment,” she
said.
A park gone silent
On a recent morning in Puerto Rico’s capital, speakers at a barbershop
played an English tutorial as a couple of Dominican migrants studying to
become U.S. citizens listened closely.
The business faces a park where the Dominican community had long
gathered. It's now mostly silent and empty. Gone is the lively merengue
music, the excited chatter, the slap of dominoes.
An undocumented migrant who asked to be identified only by his nickname,
“the fisherman,” because he feared jeopardizing his case in federal
court, said he was arrested near the park.
He had illegally entered Puerto Rico in 2014 to seek more income because
his wife back home had breast cancer and he could not afford her
treatment working as a fisherman in the Dominican coastal town of Samaná.
“I needed to make a living," he said.
His wife died, but the man decided to stay in Puerto Rico. His son also
came to the island. The fisherman first worked in construction, but
after falling off a second-story floor and shattering his pelvis, he
resumed fishing once he healed.
He sold fish at the park until Jan. 26. That day, he was sitting in a
van while his son bought them lunch.
“Three agents pulled me out,” he recalled.
They arrested seven people at that moment, including his son.
The man said they slept on the floor of several jails and were given
only bread and water as they were transferred to the Puerto Rican town
of Aguadilla, then Miami and finally Texas.
Authorities sent the man back to Puerto Rico for judicial proceedings,
where he remains out on bond with an ankle monitor. His son is in a
Miami jail.
“We’re torn apart,” he said as his voice cracked.
A swell of support
Every day, Marrero keeps an eye out for white vans that might be
circulating near her church.
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A police car patrols a street in front of a liquor store in Barrio
Obrero, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP
Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
Inside, more than a dozen volunteers fold donated clothes and
prepare free meals for undocumented immigrants who are too scared to
leave their homes.
“They’re panicking,” said José Rodríguez, president of the Dominican
Committee of Human Rights. “They’re afraid to go out; they’re afraid
to take their children to school.”
In February, Puerto Rico’s Education Department noted that schools
with a high number of Dominican students saw absentee rates of up to
70%. Officials have since ordered school principals to keep their
gates closed and not open them to federal agents unless they have a
warrant.
The mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, has said municipal police are
not working for or helping federal agents, and that the city is
offering legal aid and other assistance.
Meanwhile, Julio Roldán Concepción, mayor of Aguadilla, a northwest
coastal town where many undocumented migrants arrive by boat, called
for empathy.
“Any undocumented migrant can come by city hall if they need help,”
he said. “I am not going to ask to see papers to give it to them. …
We are all brothers here.”
Officials in Puerto Rico's health sector also have offered to help
undocumented migrants. Carlos Díaz Velez, president of the
Association of Medical Surgeons, announced that undocumented
migrants would receive online medical care “in light of the raids
that have condemned thousands of immigrants to confinement."
Gov. Jenniffer González, a Republican who supports Trump, initially
said the president’s initiative would not affect immigrants in
Puerto Rico. Since then, she has said the island “cannot afford to”
ignore Trump's directives on migrant arrests, noting that federal
funds are at risk.
Shortly after the January arrests, the Episcopalian Church in Puerto
Rico announced a new program that offers migrants food as well as
legal, psychological and spiritual help. More than 100 people have
sought help, said Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado.
“The church is never going to be against a law, but it will oppose
its effects,” he said.
‘An honorable, dignified return’
Federal agents initially targeted neighborhoods in San Juan, but
they have since fanned out across the island and into work sites,
Rodríguez said.
A man who declined to be identified because his court case is
pending, said he was arrested on Feb. 26. He first arrived in Puerto
Rico in 2003 but was arrested upon reaching shore. After being
deported, he tried again in February 2007. He got a construction job
and then opened his own company.
“I had never felt unsafe,” he said.
But one afternoon, a woman whose house he was working on complained
about his work. The following day, federal agents arrested him and
his employees as soon as they arrived at the work site. That’s when
he found out the woman had taken a picture of his van and reported
him.
“How can people want to hurt someone so much?” he said.
His attorney said he has a court date on April 1. The man said he
applied years ago for U.S. residency but never received a response.
His wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen and his daughter lives
legally in Orlando, Florida.
As the arrests continue, Marrero, the pastor, keeps educating
undocumented migrants. If they have children born in Puerto Rico,
she urges to make sure to have their children's passports and
custody papers in order and on hand.
She says she asks them to repeat the responses they should give
agents depending on what they’re told to do, noting that many don’t
know how to read or write or do so poorly.
“We have prepared them for an honorable, dignified return,” she
said.
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